This planet, which was called “GJ 251 c”, is only less than 20 light-years away from us, and is classified within the category of “super-Earths”, which are rocky planets similar to our planet but larger in size, making it the ideal target for those searching for life outside Earth.

Importantly, this new world lies in the “habitable zone” around its star, where conditions are right for liquid water to exist on the surface – a key feature that increases the likelihood of life.

andThis important discovery was made using a specialized instrument called the Habitable Zone Planet Finder.designed specifically to search for worlds in this ideal region around the stars.

The research team relied on analyzing data collected over more than 20 years from various observatories and telescopes, where they tracked the phenomenon of slight “stagger” in the movement of the host star, which results from the influence of the planet’s gravity during its rotation around the star.

Initially, scientists were studying another planet in the same system known as GJ 251 b, but a deeper analysis revealed the presence of an additional, larger planet in this solar system, the existence of which was later confirmed, which is the new planet GJ 251 c.

Although scientists cannot yet see the planet directly or confirm the presence of an atmosphere or life on it, they consider it a very promising candidate for future studies.

Suvrat Mahadevan of Penn State University, one of the research participants, commented: “We have made an exciting discovery, but the journey is still at the beginning. There is a lot to learn about this planet, and we hope that future telescopes will enable us to study it directly.”

Source: Independent

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